Contributions from European Symbolic Interactionists Reflections on Methods

MORAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

REVISITED: POLICE OFFICERS

MONITORING CANNABIS

RETAILERS IN ROTTERDAM,

THE NETHERLANDS

Thaddeus Mu ̈ller

ABSTRACT

In this paper on police officers who monitor coffee shops in Rotterdam,

the Netherlands, I relate their work to Becker’s moral entrepreneur

(1963). Becker describes two categories of moral entrepreneurs: rule

creators, such as the crusading reformer, and rule enforcers, for example

the police. According to Becker, the rule enforcer is less naı ̈ve and more

pragmatic than the rule creator. The main question of this paper is: in

what respect can the work of the police officers be described as moral

entrepreneurship? To answer this question I conducted in-depth inter-

views with six police officers on the meaning they attach to their duties

of monitoring coffee shops. The research shows that police officers take

a pragmatic approach, which also contains layers of morality that influ-

ence their rule enforcing. For instance, the way they define the character

Contributions from European Symbolic Interactionists: Reflections on Methods
Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Volume 44, 139
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